So now this warm bottle of tomato sauce is going to cuddle up on the couch in this freezing winter weather and read this book in order to try and redeem myself.
How I told my children about Diabetes.
I recently read this blog centering around how to tell your children that you have Diabetes.
http://insulinnation.com/living/daddy-whats-a-pump/?utm_src=HseEmail+00073
This got me thinking- How did I tell my kids about my Diabetes or did I?
I didn't have a sit down talk with them. It just happens during the everyday happenings of life,
I had to tell them not to play with the insulin pens but every parent should tell their kids not to take ,use or play with any form of medicine besides if they forget Mum's instructions and they think Mum bought a cool new highlighter, on taking the lid off they will see a sharp silver needle and quickly leave that pen alone.
Words children in a Diabetic family know and use that other kids don't:
Novapen
Test Kit
High (My youngest son has a hearty appetite and he has even tried saying if you eat all that you will go high in hopes that he will score the leftovers.)
Low
I need something to eat (They know that this does not just mean that I am hungry.)
Unlike this previous blogger I also never told my kids that the blood testing doesn't hurt. I remember my first finger prick and it was sore. (Granted the nurse did not have a softclix devise in those days. She just wielded this lancet from a dizzying height like she was trying to draw blood from a bull.)
I knew that one day I would want to check my son's blood sugar and I didn't want to come across as a liar in their eyes. I did tell them that sometimes it does hurt a little but I have done it so often now I don't even notice it.
All that said before school going age 6/7 they should know that if you look after your Diabetes and take all your medicine you can have a normal life and live as long a life as anyone else because at school it is very easy to be given incomplete information from other children. Like "My Gran died from Diabetes."
However you do it children learn best from observation.
If Mum is always injecting that medicine in a pen then that is important special stuff for Mum.
If Mum has sweets in her test kit bag those are only for Mum.
Mum is more or less like any other Mum.
" My Mum takes us to school,goes to work *,comes to my school concert , comes to my soccer match,walks the park run with us and oh she is also a Diabetic and has to take insulint.(Not a spelling mistake this is how they used to say it.) and she bit my Dad once when her blood sugar was too low."
I don't think that is all that different from a non-Diabetic Mum's activities.
* I work as a bookkeeper and my Son thought I was something like a Librarian for years until he came with me to my work one day and saw no books what a let down.
I love my children dearly and they are a miracle. If I had been born even as soon as when my parents where born. I probably would have been told not to risk having babies and thank God I wasn't.
Would have really loved to be at a Beetles concert though.
Cheers for now.
Stay Linked
Kim
